"CARNAÚBA DOS DANTAS, Brazil — The land has sustained the Dantas family for more than 150 years, bearing fields of cotton, beanstalks up to a grown man’s hip and, when it rained enough, a river that led to a waterfall."
"Legal team faces daily threats as it works to protect displaced families from landowners, ecosystems from mining and indigenous groups from oil companies".
"BORBA, Brazil — Brazilian police said Monday they burned 131 boats used by gold miners in the heart of the Amazon, raising tensions in an isolated region rife with poverty and crime.
Smoke has been wafting over the Madeira river since Saturday, with many locals complaining the swift action by authorities has left them stranded in the rainforest.
"An examination of Brazil’s immense tannery industry shows how hides from illegally deforested ranches can easily reach the global marketplace. In the United States, much of the demand for Brazilian leather comes from automakers."
"Deforestation in the Amazon region has risen for the fourth straight year, despite international pressure and pledges from Brazil's government to preserve the rainforest."
"Pedro was just seven when he started work on a sugarcane farm with his father after refusing to go to school - little knowing what this small act of rebellion would cost him."
"Scientists have found something strange has been happening among sensitive bird species in the Brazilian Amazon in recent years. Not only were the birds declining in number, but their bodies were also shrinking in size."
"Their lawsuit demands protection for the Marañón River from Lot1AB, an oilfield carved into the Amazon Rainforest with nearly 2,000 contaminated sites."
"For more than a century, a wide, low seawall has protected the country of Guyana from the depravations of the Atlantic Ocean."
Conserving crop diversity is a key to maintaining global food security, especially in the face of climate change. To understand those efforts, Portland, Ore.-based freelancer Virginia Gewin traveled to South America, supported by a grant from the Society of Environmental Journalists, to find out how Peruvian chefs and Amazon dwellers hope to save the rainforest by sharing native and wild foods.
